


Misery and Marigolds

by Solitori



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Hanahaki Disease, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Break Up, Unrequited Love, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 08:29:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29714442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solitori/pseuds/Solitori
Summary: Vox learns that he despises flowers. Absolutely abhors them.He also learns that the price of loving Valentino may just cost him his afterlife.
Relationships: Valentino & Vox (Hazbin Hotel), Valentino/Vox (Hazbin Hotel)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	Misery and Marigolds

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based off of the Hanahaki AU that had sprung up for staticmoth on Twitter.
> 
> This series may take a while, but meanwhile I also have a few one-shots in the works.
> 
> Hope you enjoy! <3

When Vox woke up that morning, everything seemed fine, great even. He got up feeling refreshed, and had just enough time to prepare himself some breakfast before his first meeting of the day.

However, when he sat up from the chair at his dining table, he felt a slight dizziness hit him, black invading the edges of his sight before receding. That was weird, he thought to himself, but he shrugged it off. 

Turning on the shower and stepping inside, he tried to get himself fresh and ready for the day. After fifteen minutes of him singing along to the latest top 100 songs, he dried off and got dressed in his signature outfit, adjusting his bowtie to perfection. 

Vox picked up his keys and placed down some food and water for Vark, making sure the shark demon had enough for the day. He pushed open the front door and headed out, using the keys to start his car and stepping from the door down to the ground.

As he was walking to his car, he felt a tightness in his lungs, stopping him dead in his tracks. Clutching at his chest, he stood still until it passed, blinking. Was he sick? Demons, specifically powerful overlords, typically didn’t get sick, but it was a possibility.

He rolled his eyes and cursed at the thought, continuing his walk to the car and hopping in. During his drive, he felt his chest tighten a few more times, and he prayed to Lucifer that his meeting would go smoothly.

Vox pulled up to the building and got out, marching inside with the confidence of a demon who feared absolutely nothing. He rode up the elevator, the tightness in his chest having seemingly vanished for the time being. It dinged as he reached his desired floor, and he stepped out.

Strolling into the business room, he plastered on a sharp smirk, an intimidating aura forming around him. “So, shall the meeting commence?” He spoke as he walked to his seat, startling a few of the preoccupied demons.

The first few demon presenters sat up, immediately going over the data for that month’s viewership. Vox took a few mental notes, checking off which shows seemed to drop in ratings. His mind drifted off after a while, running with the memory of last night’s fight he had with his boyfriend, Valentino.

The whole thing was stupid, Vox had simply forgotten which flavor of drink Val asked for, and the fucker nearly smashed his face in. He’d expected the swing of his boyfriend’s fist right before impact and had dodged it, their verbal fight continuing. At the end, the rat bastard had kicked him out, telling him to go fuck himself.

Sighing, Vox looked around and twirled his pen, still unfocused. As much as Valentino pissed him off, he desperately wanted to make it up to him. Besides, he should have remembered what drink his boyfriend liked, considering how long they had been dating.

Out of nowhere, Vox started coughing slightly, attempting to muffle the sound with his hand. He continued to cough into his fist after that, standing up in his chair and excusing himself for a moment before heading out of the room. After a particularly rattling cough, something wet was forced into his hand.

Slowly opening his hand, he stared down at the object in his palm, revealing a single flower petal. It was a white tulip, covered in his saliva from being lodged in his mouth. Vox was extremely confused, had someone brought flowers into the office? It was the only way he could imagine a flower getting caught in his throat.

He gazed down at the petal, the flower strangely reminding him of Val. At the thought of the moth pimp, he choked out a few more tulip petals, raising his eyebrow at the clump in his hand. Something wasn’t right here. Popping back in the room to let his workers know he was leaving, he swiftly made his way out to his car and started the engine.

Vox hated to admit it, but he was concerned. He’d never heard of someone coughing up flowers before, and the deep pit in his gut told him something was majorly wrong. During his drive back, he choked out even more flowers than before, the white tulips fluttering to the floor like freshly fallen snow.

Pulling up to his place, he scooped up the petals scattered across the floor, shoving them into his pockets. Feeling a wave of nausea collide with his already churning stomach, he practically ran inside, wasting no time in rushing to the bathroom. He heaved into the toilet, petals and whole flowers tumbling out of his mouth.

A few minutes passed of him retching, blue rose petals appearing amongst the white tulips. It would’ve made for a beautiful bouquet, had it not come from his suffering. Vox fell back against the bathroom wall, panting hard. What the fuck was going on? He was beyond exhausted, but knew that he needed to figure out what was going on before he got any rest.

He had half the thought to call up Valentino, express that something was wrong, but he quickly dismissed the thought, a few more rose petals descending in disagreement. Vox took note of how often the flowers would appear when Val was mentioned in his mind, that was strange.

Vox sat on the floor, still trying to regain his sense of balance and diminish his nausea. His head felt like it was spinning, but he forced himself to stand, stumbling toward his desk and plopping down into the chair. Starting up the numerous monitors, he tapped his fingers in anticipation. Vox needed to know what was causing this weird illness.

The computers powered on all at once, and he got to work, scavenging the internet for any miniscule piece of information that could help him figure his situation out. He stared at the screens for hours, his eyelids drooping heavily as his fingers flew along the keyboard. Five hours in, Vox almost gave up on his search, rubbing at his eyes drowsily, when he spotted something that caught his attention.

“Hanahaki…?” He mumbled out loud, clicking the information page. A website popped up, one even Vox had never heard of. It was full of articles and small studies about people coughing up flowers. He was confused, how hadn’t he heard of something as peculiar as this?

Digging deeper, Vox read into each article one by one. Fuck. Fuck, fuck _fuck._ A disease that develops from unrequited love? According to the studies, very few demons experienced this phenomena. 

The disease was explained to be flowers that would bloom in the host’s lungs caused by unrequited feelings harbored for an individual. These flowers would get worse until either the recipient of the host’s feelings returned their love, or the flowers overflowed in the host’s lungs, and they perished. 

Vox sat there a moment, contemplating. Could someone in Hell die again from something so pathetic? And… Did this mean that Val didn’t love him back? 

The thought caused more blue rose petals to spew from his mouth, Vox catching them and wiping his lips. No, that couldn’t be the case, perhaps the moth overlord just held no feelings for him at the moment. Their fight had been fairly bad, so maybe if Vox apologized, those stupid flowers would disappear.

Keeping that in mind, Vox hacked up a few white tulips and went back to doing research. All of his drowsiness from earlier had faded after the revelation of his odd disease, his newfound energy being used to search for more information.

One article had mentioned something about the flowers a demon suffering from Hanahaki disease coughed up being influenced by their emotions towards the one they love. Vox grabbed the clump of roses and tulips on his desk and began scouring the internet for flower meanings.

He started with the flower that appeared first, the white tulips. Most sites mentioned purity and innocence, but Vox knew that didn’t apply to his feelings towards Valentino. He kept digging, and found that white tulips were often used as apologies. Huh, he’d keep that in mind for a future bouquet if he ever needed to apologize again.

Switching his search to blue roses, he found a fitting significance of these petals much quicker than the ones from before. Unattainable love, or a love from secrecy. Vox felt his stomach twist at the implication, deciding to brush it off for now. Valentino’s love was not unattainable, as he’d held it high in his grip before. He would apologize, and everything would be okay again.

Sighing, Vox rubbed his head and shut off the monitors. He felt an enormous headache begin to form, the throbbing in his screen just as bad as when Val would smash it. His eyes widened at the mental mention of the moth pimp, coughing hard. Shit, he really had to stop thinking about the demon so often if he wanted to survive this.

He stood up abruptly, making his way to his bedroom. Vox didn’t even bother changing out of his clothes, instead simply stripping his shoes and socks and peeling off his sweaty jacket. He fell down on the bed, laying an arm over his screen and huffing a tired breath. His mind drifted to Val again unintentionally, missing the man’s company as he laid there alone.

The combined stress of his forceful coughs and emotional anguish led him to fall slowly into a restless slumber, his large bed cold without another body there to warm it.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry it's so short, the next chapter will definitely be lengthier.
> 
> Hanahaki is one of my favorite AUs, and I love writing someone like Vox experiencing it. Somehow it's both tragic yet gratifying ^^;
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
